In a blow for the local festival scene, Sunset Events have announced that they will not be holding the long running Southbound Festival this summer. The music, arts and camping festival regularly hosted huge Australian and International artists in Busselton, with the last line up including acts like Sticky Fingers, Peaches, Peking Duk and Ladyhawke.

In a post on their Facebook page, organisers say:

“After 13 years of Southbound, it is with much consideration that we have decided to take a break for 2017 to focus on some exciting new projects. More on these soon…
Producing such events in collaboration with our community is a huge undertaking, and one as passionate organisers we take very seriously. This time will allow us to return with a re-invigorated festival with hopefully many more memorable years to come. Thanks to all our fans as always for your ongoing support.
– Team Southbound xx”

They also encourage patrons to register their interest if they wanted to see Southbound return in 2018.

Southbound are rumoured to be enduring hard financial times, especially after the last edition of the festival suffered poor ticket sales.

The 2016 edition of the festival was cancelled due to bush fires blocking the roads between Busselton and Perth, threatening the safety of all involved. This is also said to have added to the strain that the festival is under.

The addition of Falls Downtown in Fremantle in January this year at a similar time to Southbound and vying for many of the same acts, was a contributing factor to last year’s poor ticket sales.